Just back from the MoSGA annual conference held in Jefferson City, MO.
Julie Miller, CG was the keynote speaker and had talks on several topics including search engines (more out there than just Google), military records and naturalization records. All were very informative and Julie is a great speaker!
My two favorite sessions were presented by the same person, Michael Strauss, AG. Michael talked about historical maps in one session and the CCC in another. In the historical map session Michael demonstrated how to use panoramic maps and Sanborn maps in conjunction to create an image of where our ancestors lived. The selection of historical maps is much larger than I expected, including draft registration maps and election maps. I can't wait to start using these resources!
The Civilian Conservation Corps has a wealth of detailed information available. The trick is getting it! Records are held by the National Archives, however, there is not an index. You must write to the National Personnel Record Center requesting information, they will get back to you on whether or not they have a file and what the cost will be (could be $60 - $100!). There are other records, besides the individual records, that can provide genealogical information such as camp inspection reports.
My father was in a CCC camp in Arkansas, I have a photo I will get scanned in and post. I'm looking forward to requesting his file (hopefully on the $60 end!) and see what they find!
I met several people at the conference that I really enjoyed visiting with. I will make this comment simply because it has been in the blog headlines lately...the youth movement was lacking at this conference! Keep in mind this was a small state conference but there were approximately a dozen in our 40's, and maybe a handful younger than that. One topic that was missing from the speaker line up was technology of any kind which was disappointing. MoSGA is having a call for speakers for their 2010 annual conference, I hope they will receive a response from some of the more techo/social media type speakers!
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